Chemistry Sucks
by katie2132
Summary: Addison Black just wants to be a science officer on a starship. See new planets, discover cool things. That sort of stuff. Leonard McCoy was never supposed to be part of the equation. (I'm terrible at summaries, cut me a break.) BonesxOC
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys, thanks in advance for reading. This is my first fanfic, ever. For anything. Anyways, with that in mind, I would definitely appreciate some feedback. Positive is great, but negative is also more than welcome.

Anywhoodle, this is a Bones/OC fic. I know it's K+ now but it may turn into T later. I'll change the rating if it does. Kirk will be here too, and maybe, MAYBE in way later chapters Spock. I'm following the fancanon that Kirk and Bones roomed together because I want that to have happened.

DISCLAIMER: If I owned Star Trek, why would I be writing fanfiction about it? I could write actual screenplays. I do own Addy I suppose, but I don't care if anyone borrows her.

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I stormed into the empty classroom ten minutes early and went immediately to the back row of seats. Dropping my bag beside me I collapsed into the chair and let out a long sigh as I took in the classroom. It was huge. One of the academy's largest lecture halls. And I was there for Chem 102.

I hate chemistry.

More than anything else in the world, I hated chemistry. Biology? Great. Astronomy? Awesome. Physics? Fantastic. But chemistry, chemistry I hated. Chemistry I had suffered through in highschool and then in college. I sucked it up and took all the chem classes I needed and then some because I wanted to be able to focus on bigger and better things at Starfleet than CHEMISTRY. But alas, there I sat. In a freshman chemistry class, with the same exact textbook I used four years ago, ready to learn absolutely nothing because I already took this freaking class.

But no one ever said becoming a scientist on a starship would be easy, or fun.

I watched as the professor came in and got himself settled in at his desk before looking around. When he saw me there he damn near fell out of his chair. I smirked and busied myself on my PADD while he collected himself. Silver lining to showing up ridiculously early to everything to get away from my roommate, startled people are amusing.

Cadets started filing in until the hall was a swarm of red. Most people sat nearer the front, but a few people who shared my scowl sat further back by her. Down a few seats from my in the row in front of me sat a brown haired man who seemed to be more pissed about this class than I was. Needless to say, I was a bit impressed.

The weak-nerved professor stood and the hall went silent. He smirked to himself at his control over the group.

"Where was that control when you practically fell out of your chair five minutes ago?" I muttered under my breathe. The brunette in front of her snorted. I found myself smiling at that. I saw some serious friend potential in this guy.

"Now, if you'll all pull up your textbooks and take a look at page 12…" The professor rambled on. For a few minutes, I listened and determined he wasn't as good a teacher as the first professor who taught me this crap. So I pulled up some light reading, "High-Energy Astrophysics". Infinitely better than listening to this shit. Every once in awhile, though, I would look up at the guy in front of her. His slightly annoyed expression had been replaced by one of genuine confusion. I leaned forward to look over his shoulder at what he was doing. He was stuck on an Avogadro's law problem and the professor was doing a stand-up job of not explaining anything at all.

"That should be 6.02214 time 10 to the positive 23rd. He doesn't realize he's made a mistake on the board because he thinks he's too cool to work a problem out as an example." I whispered to him. He turned to me, confusion mixing with apprehension. He turned back to his PADD and mixed the mistake, and quickly got the right answer.

"Well damn." He half-whispered. "You're not even paying attention, how did you know?" He asked turning back to me.

"I took this class in college." I tried to brush it off.

"Did you fail? Why do you have to retake it?" He continued.

"Because Starfleet apparently doesn't trust Stanford to properly educate future science officers. What are you going for?" I asked.

"Medical." He said over his shoulder. He had turned back to the professor and jotted down some notes.

"And you've never taken a chemistry class before?" I pestered.

"Of course I have, but Starfleet seems to have a stupid incredibly restricting regulation for every occasion." He explained while still taking notes.

"Here, give me that." I said, grabbing his PADD. I sent myself a communication from his PADD and sent my notes from this class to him. "There, those should be better than whatever this dumbass thinks he's teaching." I handed his PADD back. He took it and looked over it for a few moments.

"Addison Black?" He asked looking up at me.

"Call me Addy." I said

"Leonard McCoy." He offered with his hand. I chuckled a bit and shook it.

"Who the hell shakes hands anymore?" I joked.

"Country doctors, I suppose."

"What's a country doctor doing at Starfleet?" I asked, hoping I wasn't overstepping my bounds.

"Not failing chemistry anymore, how about yourself?" He dodged my question and from the look in his eyes I knew better than to press.

"Oh you know, disappointing my family and scaring my mother into an early grave. The usual." I joked. He chuckled a bit at that.

"I know plenty about disappointing family, darlin'." He said with a rueful smile. We both became aware of the silence in the room. Looking up, we saw the professor and the majority of the other cadets staring at us. McCoy had the decency to look down but I just smiled my cheesiest smile at the professor before giving him a you-may-go-on hand gesture. The class started to laugh but it was nothing next to the small smile McCoy gave me.

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Well, there it is. Thanks for reading! I'll probably update soon if I'm going to, and by soon I mean PROBABLY by Monday.

BTW: Super brownie points for anyone who knows what McCoy is talking about when he says disappointing family. It's not Jocelyn and Joanna.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys, thanks for all the positive feedback! This one is a little shorter than the last. Also, just fair warning, I have no beta. But I have been reading stuff over myself. Anybody wanna be a beta and my best friend? PM me or do a review and I'll PM you, whatever works :)

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One week later…

I looked up from where I was sitting on the floor of the science library. Running my hands through my long raven hair I stared up at the ceiling in exasperation. I wondered why the ceiling was so smooth and contemplated the advantages of a different textured ceiling. There weren't really any specific advantages to it but at the...

"Addy?" A male voice drew me out of my thoughts. I looked down from the ceiling to see Leonard crouched down in front of me.

"Lenny?" I said in an only very slightly mocking voice.

"I'm not a "Lenny" darlin'." He said with a scowl.

"Says you." I shot back.

"Call me whatever you like, just help me with this damn lab." He gave in.

"Gimme" I extended my hand toward him.

"You look like a toddler when you do that." He teased as he handed me his PADD.

"So what you're saying is I'm adorable? I agree." I smiled ear to ear up at him. Leonard just shook his head and I looked down to his PADD. "This is stupid." I whined. "I don't know why he's making you guys do this, it doesn't have anything to do with organic chemicals. Isn't that what the whole class is supposed to be? 'Organic chemicals of the galaxy' or whatever?" I ranted as I jotted down some notes on his PADD.

"Somethin' like that." He mumbled while leaning over the edge of the PADD to see what I was writing. I slowly started to tilt it towards myself. Leonard, not noticing I was moving it, started slowly inching forward until his forehead was about an inch away from my chin. I bit my lip to avoid laughing as a figure appeared behind Leonard.

"Am I interrupting something?" The man asked with a smile and raised eyebrows. Leonard turned quickly to face him.

"A library is about the last place I expected to see you." Leonard greeted the blonde man.

"Nerd girls can be hot too, Bones. Don't be so closed minded." He smirked at Leonard. I smiled at the nickname. I'd have to ask about that. "Speaking of, whose your friend?" He asked looking down at me. I rolled my eyes at his lame indirect compliment.

"Addy. I'm Addy." I offered before Leonard could get a word out. "And that's a really terrible reason to be bothering people in a library." I muttered.

"Well Addy, I'm Jim Kirk. Glad to make your acquaintance." He said with an ear to ear grin and a small nod. I nodded back out of courtesy. I was a little annoyed at being interrupted, having never been particularly fond of socializing. Leonard was… an exception. "What are you reading?" He asked.

"High Energy Astrophysics" I said a little more curtly than was probably called for.

"Business or pleasure?" He asked as he walked over and sat down with Leonard and I.

"I little of both, I suppose. The information will be helpful for my astrophysics class next semester." I offered, trying to be a little friendlier because he was apparently joining us.

"Huh." He said looking me over rather obviously. "Most of the people who hang out in the science library only do it to impress the other people in the science library who in turn are there to impress them, it's a whole big circle." He said.

"Jim, I think you're thinking of a club or a bar. This isn't exactly a social scene." Leonard said.

"Just look at us, we're hanging out here, socializing." Jim countered.

"Actually we," I gestured between Leonard and myself. "were discussing science. You're here socializing." I commented mostly to myself.

"Are you alway this friendly?" He asked.

"Are you always this annoying?" I shot back. I gave the friendly thing a chance, it didn't work out. Jim smiled at Leonard.

"I like her." He said, still grinning.

"Yeah she's great." Leonard muttered as he grabbed his PADD back from me. Jim grabbed it out of Leonard's hand. He held it in his far hand and held his other out to hold off Leonard.

"What is this? A chemistry lab? Bones, aren't you a doctor? Shouldn't you have, y'know, already taken all the chemistry required?" Jim asked.

"Jim, give that back." Leonard demanded as he lept at Jim. Jim easily fell beneath Leonard and the PADD landed beneath both of them with a crack. They froze there for a second, Leonard looking furious and Jim looking like a deer caught in the headlights. It was all too much and I broke out in laughter. They both slowly turned to face me with twin expressions of confusion.

"Good thing I saved for you." I offered while still laughing. Leonard smiled and shook his head. Jim started laughing too, and Len promptly smacked him upside the head for it which sent us all further into our fit of laughter.

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Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave suggestions about what you want to see because I only have a very vague long-term plan for this. Anywhoodles, you're all wonderful people and I love you and PRETTY PLEASE REVIEW! I'll love you forever!


	3. Chapter 3

First of all, super special thanks to my wonderful beta, Jewelgirl04 for being fantastic :D So, this is now rates T. Fair warning. It has more swearing of about the same caliber, a tincy bit of violence, some nonspecific and certainly non-graphic sexual content. It's referenced and implied but not actually included. Anyways, thanks for the continued support guys!

If you guys saw this chapter posted earlier, it's fixed now. I have no idea what caused that little technical difficulty but it seems to be fixed now. All's well that ends well :)

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_One Month Later_

The bar was too loud and crowded and I knew that normally, I would be having a terrible time. In fact, I'd be sulking at the end of the bar like Leonard was. But today was no ordinary day.

Today was Saturday the something-th of some month. And it was special, though I couldn't exactly remember why. Because there were no other circumstances that would adequately explain why I THIS drunk.

And grinding on Jim Kirk.

I quelled the annoying little voice in my head that said today probably wasn't Saturday, but rather, a weeknight. After all, Addison Black would never drink on a weeknight.

This guy was a bad influence. And handsy… and dancing with two other girls at the same time.

I looked around the bar and my eyes landed on Leonard. I left Jim to the other women for the time being and walked (okay, stumbled) over to him and he smiled when he saw me. "Sugar, you're not dancing. You should be dancing," I said, trying my best not to slur my words.

"I'm not much of a dancer," he said, putting his hands on my arms to balance me as I tilted.

"Look at how Jim's 'dancing'. It's dancing only in name." I glanced over at Kirk who didn't seem to notice I had left. "Anyway," I interrupted my own train of thought, redirecting my attention back to the doctor. "He's a little too occupied at the moment to dance with me and I wanna dance, so... pleeeease?" I begged with my best puppy dog face.

He smiled, shaking his head at the floor like he always did, and got up to follow me onto the dance floor. I put his hands on my hips and start shaking them in time to the music. Leonard's posture stiffened at first, yet whether it was from the close contact or the fact he just didn't like to dance, I wasn't sure. But by the end of the first song, he had relaxed and, by the grace of some deity, seemed to be enjoying himself.

A few songs later, I ended up back with Jim, though I can't recall how. My former dance partner, on the other hand, was dancing with a strawberry blonde that I recognized from my xenobiology class. And he was grinding on her, hard.

My body started to operate on autopilot and suddenly, it was my cue to reach up and wrap my arms around Jim's neck, pressing my body further into his and eliminating any remaining space between us.

But McCoy didn't even notice. My cheeks burned, the heat traveling to my itching fingertips. I turned around and grabbed Jim's hand, pulling him off the floor. His blue eyes clouded, confused by the sudden turn of events.

I must have been slightly confused too.. running into the blonde bitch and knocking her on the ground was just a happy side effect of my bewilderment.

"What's your problem?" she shrieked, checking her hands for scrapes as Leonard helped her up.

"Nothing!" I shot back sharply, with a hint of arrogance. Though, to everyone else looking on, my slurred speech was far less impressive. "Maybe if you'd use your brain a little more... and your boobs a little less... you'd be able to stay out of the damn way!" I glared, cocking my head to the side to emphasize my point. She gave a little huff, her eyes narrowing into thin slits. I barely had enough time to process her reaction when she reared back and smacked me across the face.

I growled, my head still swiveled to the side from the contact. "Now see that?" I turned my face to stare her down. "Right there, that's my problem with you! Only bitches slap! If you're gonna hit a person…" My eyes momentarily dropped to the floor, steeling myself. "HIT a person!" I roared as my fist met her jaw with a satisfying crack.

"Addy!" Leonard barked at me, dropping to the floor to kneel beside the woman. "What the hell's the matter with you?!" He started checking out the other girl's face, turning his back on me. Jealousy bubbled up inside of me and I felt my stomach start to churn with rage.

Satisfied with the first option that popped into my drunk brain, I turned to Jim, who was even more drunk than I was and hardly seemed to notice that anything was wrong. Grabbing his hand once more, I dragged him back to the exit…

And back to my dorm.

_The Next Morning_

I woke up to find a dozen tiny dwarves were their pick axes to mine for God-knows-what in my skull, chirping their little song as they clinked away. And to add insult to overwhelming injury, the dwarves were clearly tone deaf.

But the bed I was soft and warm. In fact, it was comforting enough that I could nearly ignore the noisy offenders in my brain, sink into the comfortable mattress, and go back to sleep. Then, the bed shifted under someone else's weight.

I froze. What the hell had I done?

Complete panic took a firm hold on me as a hand slid around my waist and a voice whispered a hoarse greeting in my ear. The familiarity of that voice stung like an icicle through my heart.

The events of the past night flooded my still-foggy brain: Leonard's laugh as he twirled me around on the dance floor. Jim's body pressed against my back. A stinging slap across the face. A bone giving way under the force of my fist. Jim kissing down my stomach...

… Jim kissing down my stomach.

"...Jim?" I was ashamed of how small I sounded.

"Yeah?" He sounded almost hopeful. Did he even remember last night?

"Do you remember what happened last night?" I asked tentatively.

"No," he admitted unabashedly. "But I appear to have gone home with the prettiest girl in the place, so... I'm thinking it was a good night." He grinned mischievously against the back of my neck and pulled me flush against him. I winced, scrunching my eyelids tightly as I silently thanked every higher power I had ever heard of that he had, at some point, put his boxers back on.

Jim didn't seem to realize what had happened last night, what had driven me to take him home. I sighed with relief and it washed over my whole body. He, however, interpreted my response as a sigh of contentedness and nuzzled into my neck. I didn't correct his misinterpretation, deciding to relax into his arms instead.

All in all, it wasn't a bad morning, especially compared to the utterly terrible night I'd had. I was laying in Jim's arms, his breathe on the back of my neck soothed the mining dwarves and I lazily gazed around the room.

When my eyes fell on the control panel embedded in the wall, it hit me like a ton of bricks: the clock read 09:30.

_Shit!_

I jumped out of bed and rushed to my dresser, only to find it completely empty. Taking option B, I grabbed one of my roommates dresses, disregarding the fact that she'd kill me. That would happen later and right now I was only focused on getting to class.

"What's wrong?" Jim asked, looking genuinely confused as he nearly hung over the side of the bed.

"I have a chemistry class that starts in a half hour on the other side of campus." I explained as I pulled my hair into a ponytail and threw on the first pair of shoes I saw.

"Let me give you a lift," he offered as he stood and started searching for his clothes.

I thought of Leonard and the guilt slowly crept back into the pit of my stomach.

"No you don't have to do that, I'll walk it," I assured him. I wasn't about to show up to the class Len and I had met in on the back of his best friend's bike. "You should get back to your own dorm, you're kind of a mess," I said with a forced smile that he fortunately didn't see through.

Considering the relatively decent morning I was having, I was pretty sure last night wasn't actually as horrible as I remembered it. How could things go from that bad to this good so quickly? Tardiness aside, of course.

After all… why would Leonard care who gave me a ride? Why would Leonard McCoy care about me at all?

"Actually, a ride would be great."

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I PROMISE this is still a Bones/OC fic, NOT Kirk/OC. Just bear with me, okay? It can't all be cute library fluff...

Remember to pretty please with cherries on top review! You're wonderful readers with wonderful thoughts and I would love to hear them, good bad and everything in between I love me some feedback! :)


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys! I'm sorry that I haven't posted in forever! This one is split perspective between McCoy and Addy, so even though it has a bigger word count it has about the same action as the previous chapters. I just wanted to get into Bones' head a bit :) Anyhoodles, enjoy and PLEASE REVIEW!

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McCoy's POV:

The familiar sound of an engine came up behind me. I turned to see Jim on his bike with a girl behind him, wearing his helmet. Walking over to him, I stopped dead in my tracks as the girl took of his helmet. It was Addy. My Addy. On Jim's bike. My Addy had just ridden across campus with her arms wrapped around Jim's torso. I ground my teeth as my stomach churned.

But she wasn't my Addy. Forcing myself to unclench fists that I hadn't realized I had clenched, I continued towards them.

"If you don't hurry your ass up, we'll be late." I scolded a little more seriously than I usually would.

"Oh shut up, we'll be fine." She shot back as she handed Jim the helmet. He took it with one hand as the other wrapped around the back of her neck to pull her in for a kiss. For a second I thought she looked uncomfortable, but I must have been projecting it because she was all smiles when she said goodbye to him. He had the nerve to flash me a cocky smile before riding off toward his dorm, like he hadn't just betrayed his best friend by kissing his girl. But she's not your girl and he doesn't know. Wait, wasn't that the same thing Jim had been wearing the previous night? No, no. No no no no no.

"Looks like you and Jim had a pretty good night" My mouth said without even consulting my brain.

"Yeah, sorry about punching your date and all…" She trailed off. So she did remember.

"I'm surprised you remember that. You were pretty out of it last night." I commented.

"Not out of it enough for you to stop me from going home with Jim." She countered. My eyebrows shot up. I wasn't expecting that. Last night she seemed pretty damn sure about going home with him, I hadn't even considered that it might have just been the alcohol.

"You didn't exactly seem like a damsel in distress. You were the one dragging him out of the bar." I defended more to convince myself than her.

"Yeah, and even if you'd tried I probably wouldn't have listened." She said looking down.

"Probably?" I teased.

"Shut up." She smiled and shoved me playfully as we made our way to our seats.

The conversation ended as the lecture began. About fifteen minutes in, Addy leaned over to me.

"So, are you going to see her again?" She whispered in my ear. I tried not to focus on the feel of her breathe on my neck, with limited success.

"Who?" I asked, trying to follow the lecture on xeno-allotropes.

"That girl from the bar last night." She asked impatiently.

"Oh, I don't know." I said, hoping she would stop asking.

"Well did you get her number, or at least her name?" She pushed.

"Uh, yeah. Both. But I don't know, we only danced to a couple of songs…" I trailed off praying that she would take the hint.

"Yeah, but by the looks of it she was way into you." She continued to press. It was almost unbearable to hear her pushing me towards another girl and feel her breathe on my neck at the same time.

"Still don't know how into her I am."

"She's really pretty." She said. It irked me that she thought that looks were the number one factor for me. Did she really believe me to be that shallow?

"But as far as I know that's her only positive attribute." I countered.

"One date couldn't hurt." Was she actively trying to get me to break down in the middle of class? Because she was dangerously close to success.

"I have better things to do with my time than go on a pointless date with a girl just because she's pretty. Lots of girls are pretty. You're pretty." I whispered back harshly. She had to stop and she had to stop now. Had I just called her pretty? How the hell had that gotten out of my mouth?!

"You wrote that down wrong." She pointed to a formula on my PADD before turning back to her own PADD. Sure enough, it was wrong.

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Addy's POV:

For the most part the ride across campus had been pleasant. The morning air was chilly but I could practically hear Jim smile as I held onto him a little tighter. I myself was smiling until I saw Leonard. The corners of his lips turned up slightly when he saw Jim. I could have sworn he froze for a second when I took Jim's helmet off, but why would he? Even if he did, it was probably nothing more than surprise.

"If you don't hurry your ass up, we'll be late." He scolded. Whatever trace of humor was usually in his scoldings (or that I'd imagined to be in his scoldings) was seemingly gone.

"Shut up. We'll be fine." I volleyed back. I almost forgot that Jim was there until he pulled me in for a kiss. I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt to try and compensate for forgetting about him as I said goodbye.

"Looks like you and Jim had a pretty good night." He said with what could only be described as a smirk. So he wasn't in rage mode at least. Not that I expected him to be, but. It might have been nice for him to be a little upset…

No. No it wouldn't. Why would I want him to be upset? We're friends. Nothing more, he's happy for me and I should be happy about that. There should be a whole lot of happy right now.

"Yeah, sorry about punching your date and all…" I started, hoping he would jump in and say she wasn't his date. What was the matter with me?

"I'm surprised you remember that. You were pretty out of it last night." He didn't correct me. Why would he?

"Not out of it enough for you to stop me from going home with Jim." I said. I knew that I hadn't really admitted anything but I still blushed like I had just confessed my undying love for him.

"You didn't exactly seem like a damsel in distress. You were the one dragging him out of the bar." He reminded me. Oh yeah, it had been my idea, hadn't it? How could I expect him to save me from a guy I practically threw myself at?

"Yeah, and even if you'd tried I probably wouldn't have listened." I said remembering how mad I was at him in my drunken fit last night.

"Probably?" He teased. Just like that, it seemed just like before. It seemed like we could just go back to being friends, like nothing had happened. Maybe nothing had happened. Maybe I really had just made this thing between us up in my head.

"Shut up." I pushed him jokingly with a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes. My heart fell to my stomach and I realized that this is what we had. A friendship. The only time that I would feel his touch was when he would shove me or ruffle my hair.

The lecture began and I tried to pay attention. My attempts were in vain, and after a few minutes I just let my mind wander. It wandered right back to Leonard, and that girl from last night. Was he serious about her or was she just someone to dance with? He hadn't corrected me when I called her his date. I looked over at him and saw him paying close attention to the painfully boring lecture. I rolled my eyes at his studiousness. Deciding not to bother him, I turned my attention to my PADD.

…

…

…

Okay, this was the most agonizing thing in the world.

"So… are you going to see her again?" I asked. He kept his eyes on his PADD.

"Who?" He asked, looking genuinely absorbed into the lecture. He still didn't look at me. I knew it shouldn't bother me, but the world is not a perfect place.

"That girl from the bar last night." I clarified, a little harshly.

"Oh, I don't know." He said offhandedly. Was he uncomfortable talking to me or was he trying to make me jealous?

"Well did you get her number, or at least her name?" I pushed.

"Uh, yeah. Both. But I don't know, we only danced to a couple of songs…" He trailed off awkwardly. Okay, uncomfortable. But we we're supposed to be friends so I was going to be a friend even if every cell in my brain urged me to drop it.

"Yeah, but by the looks of it she was way into you." I said because I couldn't come up with anything nice to say about her.

"Still don't know how into her I am." Thank God. Wait, no! I'm trying to get them together. That's bad.

"She's really pretty." It was true at least.

"But as far as I know that's her only positive attribute." He said. I couldn't really argue with him on that point.

"One date couldn't hurt." People date casually all the time, she might be as dumb as a brick but maybe she had other positive qualities. She didn't call the cops when I punched her, that was pretty decent of her.

"I have better things to do with my time than go on a pointless date with a girl just because she's pretty. Lots of girls are pretty. You're pretty."

...What? What the hell was that? Pretty? But also apparently not worth dating…

"You wrote that down wrong." I mumbled and pointed to his PADD before turning my own definitely NOT watering eyes to my own PADD where they stayed for the rest of class.

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Aw, sad stuff :( Don't worry, next chapter will have some fluff. And some... well... not fluff. Please review! No one reviewed the last chapter and it made me really sad :( When the writer is sad, the story is sad. More reviews = less sadness. It also ends world hunger. No, really, I promise it ends world hunger! Don't believe me? Review and find out for yourself!


	5. Chapter 5

Hey guys, thanks for reviewing! You guys are awesome. Seriously, your feedback means so much :) This has some fluff, and some... well. You'll see. But there is fluff! And it's Bones/Addy fluff! So read on, wonderful readers!

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I swung my legs over Jim's lap and dug my toes into the sand. The sun was setting, and I was seriously questioning why I let Jim talk me into hanging out at the beach in the middle of October. He ran his hand over my leg and wrapped the other one around my shoulders to try and warm me.

"We should make a bonfire!" Someone shouted from the other side of the lazy circle we had formed. "We" being myself, Len, Jim, and about five of Jim's "friends" whose names I couldn't remember, and the girl from the bar, Lindsey. Leonard and I shared an annoyed look, bonfires weren't really our thing. Socializing in general actually, and it was obvious that we just wanted to leave.

Jim kissed my temple and pulled me out of my thoughts. I smiled and looked up at him. He had his eyebrows raised, silently asking if I was okay with a bonfire. My head tilted to the side and for a moment I was caught up in how nice it was to be sitting in his arms. Nodding lazily, I laid my head on his shoulder. Maybe socializing wasn't so bad under certain circumstances. A few people got up to find driftwood and Jim tossed someone a lighter.

"Get a room." I heard someone mutter. Looking up I saw Lindsey glaring at me out of the corner of her eye. All the effort I went through to get Len to not hate that bitch and she still couldn't let go of one little punch. Leonard said something to her too softly for me to hear as Jim whispered some sweet nothing to me.

"I'm gonna grab a drink from the car, anybody want anything?" I said as I got up off Jim's lap. He looked concerned for a moment but was quickly quelled when I shot him a reassuring smile. Walking behind Len and Lindsey, I made sure to "accidentally" kick some sand into her entirely-too-low pants. Just because I convinced Len not to hate her doesn't mean I wasn't allowed to hate her.

"Wait up!" I heard Len call from behind me. I turned to see him jogging towards me.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Nothing, it's just… are you okay?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I was honestly confused.

"You just don't really seem like yourself, and this," He gestured back to the group, "doesn't really seem like your sort of thing."

"Normally, no. But it is Jim's thing and it won't kill me to meet people every now and then." I said. Truthfully, it wasn't my thing. But I just couldn't say no to those big blue eyes.

"Just 'cause Jim wants to be here doesn't mean you have to be." He countered.

"It doesn't really seem like your sort of thing either, so why are you here?" I shot back with my hand on my hip.

"Lindsey really wanted to come." He said looking back at her.

"She couldn't come alone?" I pushed.

"So where does that leave me? Sitting in my dorm alone while my girlfriend and best friend are off enjoying themselves?" He spat at me.

"So pretty much right where I would be." I smiled and grabbed a beer from the cooler.

"Why don't we leave the social butterflies to mingle?" He suggested with a smile.

"And just what would we be doing?" I asked with a small smile.

"Dunno. Walking?" He said with a shrug.

"Don't you think that'll seem sort of rude?" I didn't want Jim to think I'd rather spend time with Len than him.

"We're running low on ice. There's a store maybe a mile up the beach that should still be open." He pointed to a small light building up the beach. I smiled.

"Sounds good." I said, refusing the urge to over analyze why I wanted to leave with Len rather than stay with Jim. I was never much of a social person, and quelled the little voice in the back of my head. "Jim! Hey babe, Len and I are gonna run and get some more ice, 'kay?" He nodded and waved and Lindsey gave an annoyed nod. I never would have thought that a nod could be annoyed, she certainly did have a gift.

We walked in silence for a little while. Listening to the waves crash and the gulls cry. The wind picked up and I crossed my arms to help guard against the cold. Leonard, in true Leonard fashion, pulled his sweatshirt off over his head and handed it to me.

"Well now you're going to be cold." I said, refusing to accept it.

"I've got thicker skin than you do." He joked, sweatshirt still in his extended arm.

"Nuh-uh!" I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Just shut up and take the sweatshirt." He shook his head at me.

"Don't tell me what to do!" I shot back as I turned around and backpedaled away from him a little.

"Then don't do stupid things!" He returned my volley and picked up the pace to catch up with me. I turned and started running towards the waves and he chased me, sweatshirt in hand. My bare feet hit cold, wet sand and I stopped suddenly out of surprise. Leonard caught up to me and swept me off the ground. I kicked wildly, half laughing and half screaming. I kicked one of his legs and we both fell to the ground next to one another. I rolled over to face him and he held the sweatshirt up. Shoving it in his face, I scampered to my feet and ran a few feet towards to store.

"Great, now I'm sandy and wet." He gruffed as he rose to his feet.

"And cold, I'd imagine. Good thing you have that sweatshirt." I teased. When he reached me he threw his arm around my shoulder and we fell into a steady pace walking together.

"Can I ask you something?" He broke the silence.

"Shoot."

"What do you see in him? Is it just that he's hot, because if that's all it is I don't know if you should be leading him on like this." He said quickly, like he wanted to shut up as soon as he possibly could.

"It's not just that he's hot. He's a genius of course, and he really is sweet. What do you mean leading him on?" I asked. Of all the things I was doing with Jim Kirk, leading him on never hit me as one of them.

"I don't know. I guess it's different if you really like him. I just mean that if you were just messing around with him then why bother dating him, he happily just fools around. But if you really like him it's different." He said.

"You mean 'he would just fool around'." I corrected. Leonard stopped dead in his tracks.

"...I think you two should talk." He said quietly.

"Leonard, is he still fooling around with other people?" I asked as I felt my face flush.

"I probably just misread something, it's not a big deal." He tried to play it off.

"WHAT did you misread?" I asked more frantically.

"Listen, talk to him about it okay? It's not my place to get in the middle of your relationship." He took his arm back from around my shoulder as he went into the store. A minute or two later he reemerged with ice.

"You okay?" He asked when he saw I hadn't moved a muscle. I looked up at him and then out at the ocean. I just stared out at the ocean and Len watched my expression.

"What does he say about me?" I asked, painfully aware of how much like a teenage girl I sounded.

"He says that you're different. That he wants to take things slow. Which seems stupid to me, seeing as how you two first got together but hey, it's not my relationship." He said and I willed myself to ignore what I thought was disappointment in his voice.

"Does he ever talk about the other girls?"

"He's never used anyone's name before, and he's never commented on anything above the neck before." He tried to comfort me.

"I don't need consoling, I need the truth Leonard." I insisted.

"I'm no liar, darlin'." He said. I sighed.

"This is cliche and dumb." I said without moving.

"Yep." Was his only comment. I turned around and we started back to the rest of the group. Jim smiled when he saw us and got up to jog over to meet us.

"You alright, baby?" He asked me as he put his hands on my upper arms which were crossed across my body.

"We need to talk." I said shortly. He looked over at Leonard confused and Leonard gave him an apologetic look. The two of us walked down to the water.

"Are we exclusive?" I asked bluntly. He didn't blink an eye.

"Do you want to be?" He countered.

"I thought we were." I said, meeting and holding his eye.

"I… I can only speak from now on. I wasn't sure…" He trailed off.

"Asking never hurt any." I muttered.

"I didn't want to rush you." He looked honestly sorry. Damn big blue eyes.

"That's a piss poor excuse." I said half-heartedly. The other half of my heart had melted into a puddle before those eyes.

"I never claimed to be perfect." He said.

"I never asked for perfect." I said looking looking him straight in the eye.

"You never asked for anything." He countered harshly.

"What?" I asked. I really thought I had misheard him. He was never like this. Jim was friendly, he was a sweetheart.

"You didn't ask for anything. I had no idea where we stood. I didn't break the rules because you never told me the rules!" He exclaimed.

"Jim, I didn't know where we stood either! And 'the rules'? I shouldn't have to explain the rules because we shouldn't have rules! You should do what you want, and if you want to sleep around then sleep around!" I screamed. "Do what you want. Do whatever you damn well please, Jim." I said softly as I walked away.

"Where are you going, to screw some new guy like you did with me when you got upset with Len?" He yelled after me. I couldn't do anything but turn and stare. He knew. He knew and he was hurt. He knew that I was only sleeping with him because of Leonard and he still went through with it. He knew and he still acted as though we were deeply in love and the only reason we went home together was because we liked each other. He KNEW. I turned to leave.

No. HE didn't know. THEY knew. Everyone. Leonard was shocked, Lindsey was pissed, and everyone else looked as though this was an everyday occurrence in the lives of the friends of Jim Kirk. What if this was an everyday occurrence in the lives of the friends of Jim Kirk? I wasn't anything special to him, no matter what Len said. This was the specific sort of jackass that Kirk was. He didn't keep notches on his bedpost, he kept broken hearts in his scrapbook and claimed to share the heartache. I was in a cab on the way back to my dorm before I even stopped to pay attention to what I was doing.

* * *

Well... that happened. I'm sorry for the sadness :'( BUT! This means the Bones/Addy can move forward! Yay! And you know, the more you lovely people review, the faster I'll update. No reviews = No apparent interest = Long waits for updates. Also: reviews = sunshine and happiness. Ask anyone! Thanks all!

-KT


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